SWEET JAM

Iran, 2001, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Kianoushi Ayarri.

Sweet Jam gives a different impression of Iran and the city of Teheran from the usual Iranian films that are screened at festivals. These latter are very serious, often set in the country, showing political and social problems.

Sweet Jam is a comedy, focusing especially on children, interspersed with some song-and-dance routines. It is also a social parody of television shows.

The film begins with a boy and his family trying to open a bottle of jam. He takes it to school as well as to neighbours and none of them can open the jar; he goes back to the shop and the irate shopkeeper cannot open the lid; the shopkeeper then sends the jam back to the factory; the children go to the government department for complaint but are unable to lodge it because they need an adult signature; they find a collector of glass and paper, become friends with him, and he signs the complaint.

The film then shifts into social satire with its portrait of the factory owner, his dilettante son who is the chief engineer but who enjoys basking in wealth and who then organises a national television and radio competition with a car as a prize for anyone who can open the lid. Sales increase dramatically. There is a television show (as gaudy as anything in the west) and an attempt to open the jam jar. The young hero is selected because of his seeming lack of interest - he then denounces everything on the television.

With visits from the factory owner to the family, with the factory owner getting angry with his son, with a change to the shape of the jar (the lid wouldn't come off because the jar was crooked), commerce returns to its usual state. However, the boy has become a hero because of a single individual confronting an ill in society and persevering with his complaint. The film is a mixture of comedy, slapstick, satire with a strong moral point about changing the world.